ruptured duck
n.— «On Friday, the congressman brought to the hospital what Miller had earned all those years ago—a campaign medal, a Combat Action ribbon, an Honorable Service lapel pin (known to veterans as “the ruptured duck”) and an honorable discharge medal.» —“WWII vet gets his medals” by Howard Wilkinson Cincinnati Enquirer (Ohio) Apr. 11, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
That sputtering noise when someone sticks out their tongue, puts their lips together, and blows is called a raspberry. No one knows the origin of this slang term, although it may have to do with that pileup of consonants colliding in the middle of...
The edge of the Grand Canyon. A remote mountaintop. A medieval cathedral. Some places are so mystical you feel like you’re close to another dimension of space and time. There’s a term for such locales: thin places. And: did you ever go...
I think I just read this term in Rex Stout’s triptych “Trouble in Triplicate,” in the “Instead of Evidence” novella. That would place this term in use as of 1946.
I’ve got the exact reference for this phrase I mentioned yesterday: Trouble in Triplicate (A Nero Wolfe Mystery), by Rex Stout
Original Copyright 1945, ISBN 0-553-24247-4
p. 186 “I didn’t sport a ruptured duck because I didn’t get over to kill any Germans. They gave me a majority so I could run errands for Nero Wolfe while he was winning the war.” – Archie Goodwin